About the author

Mark J. Perry is concurrently a scholar at AEI and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan's Flint campus. He is best known as the creator and editor of the popular economics blog Carpe Diem. At AEI, Perry writes about economic and financial issues for American.com and the AEIdeas blog.

Bill Gates at AEI on the risks of raising the minimum wage

Discussion: (22 comments)

Gates..Well, technology in general will make capital more attractive than labor over time. Software substitution, you know, whether it’s for drivers or waiters or nurses or even, you know, whatever it is you do – (laughter).

MR. BROOKS: We wonder that too sometimes. (Laughter.)

MR. GATES: It’s progressing. And that’s going to force us to rethink how these tax structures work in order to maximize employment, you know, given that, you know, capitalism in general, over time, will create more inequality and technology, over time, will reduce demand for jobs particularly at the lower end of the skill set.

And so, you know, we have to adjust, and these things are coming fast. Twenty years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower, and I don’t think people have that in their mental model.

As a true conservative, I support Bill Gates’ positions on everything because he’s rich and therefore he must be smart.

What he cleverly neglects to mention– because it would blow his cover– is that quite a few minimum-wage workers have to spend off-clock time, sometimes a couple of hours, continuing to work. Keeping them at minimum wage AND not enforcing overtime regulations is a good way to keep them where they belong. Mr. Gates knows this but won’t say it, because he is a very smart man.

As a true conservative, I support Bill Gates’ positions on everything because he’s rich and therefore he must be smart.

It’s always nice to see self labelled liberals, who always claim to be very intelligent, out themselves for the ignorant buffoons they are. Conservatives don’t think that if someone is rich, then “he must be smart”. Conservatives simply understand that what other people have is theirs not “ours” for “us” to dispense with as “we” please using the police state of course.

quite a few minimum-wage workers have to spend off-clock time, sometimes a couple of hours, continuing to work

Can you back this up with any evidence or are you simply telling yet another lie. Two in such a short comment. The sad thing, is that I’m not surprised. The left depends on lie and fantasy in order to justify their depraved philosophy.

As a true conservative, I support Bill Gates’ positions on everything because he’s rich and therefore he must be smart.

I thought there was a problem with the EIC as a substitute for the wage increase because it has administrative costs that a minimum wage increase does not have. In effect, the EIC would be a minimum wage hike minus, say, 2%.

But as Mr. Gates is one of the smartest men in the world, I admit the folly of my wrong thinking.

It’s only a matter of time until even the most uniquely human activities can be perfectly (or better than perfectly) replaced by machines. When machines do everything clearly no one will need to work, but what will the world look like during the transition? Are the low labor participation rates we’re already seeing part of this process?

AIG I hear you, I’m not saying things will get worse for us, I think they will continue to get better. But if you could buy a machine as clever as human for $1 it’s unlikely even the most talented of us will need to work.

Maybe we will be like horses. From their perspective things have never been better. For complex reasons people keep them safe, bring them food, clean up after them, build them little houses to live in and all they have to do is carry a few kids around a field on a Saturday. Of course they used to have a lot of work to do a couple of hundred years ago, pulling barges, carts, buggies; important jobs that powered the economy. Today innovation has left them incredibly wealthy by historic standards, they don’t work much and most retire early.